The Red Shadow

Der rote Schatten

DOMINIK GRAF
Germany,
2017
107 minutes, Color

This noir thriller touches a raw nerve in Germany as it relentlessly questions the legacy of old ghosts who are still in influential positions. Christof still loves his divorced wife, and when she drowns in her own bathtub, he kidnaps her corpse to have it autopsied. He believes that Wilhelm, her new boyfriend, killed her. Wilhelm is no prize, a brutally handsome thug who brazenly abuses women. Police inspector Lannert listens to Christof, and as his story becomes more credible, so does the inexplicable reluctance of the authorities to pursue the case. Thus Lannert becomes a German Dirty Harry, a cop forced to resist his own superiors to solve a crime. But the complications in this case just keep coming. Wilhelm's connection to the Red Army Faction (aka the Baader-Meinhof Gang) in the 1970s raises head-spinning questions about whether he is being protected by the federal secret police.—Miguel Pendás

In German with English subtitles

TRUST NO ONE

The Red Shadow

Der rote Schatten

DOMINIK GRAF
Germany,
2017
107 minutes, Color

This noir thriller touches a raw nerve in Germany as it relentlessly questions the legacy of old ghosts who are still in influential positions. Christof still loves his divorced wife, and when she drowns in her own bathtub, he kidnaps her corpse to have it autopsied. He believes that Wilhelm, her new boyfriend, killed her. Wilhelm is no prize, a brutally handsome thug who brazenly abuses women. Police inspector Lannert listens to Christof, and as his story becomes more credible, so does the inexplicable reluctance of the authorities to pursue the case. Thus Lannert becomes a German Dirty Harry, a cop forced to resist his own superiors to solve a crime. But the complications in this case just keep coming. Wilhelm's connection to the Red Army Faction (aka the Baader-Meinhof Gang) in the 1970s raises head-spinning questions about whether he is being protected by the federal secret police.—Miguel Pendás